Brothers and Sisters...

     I recently had the opportunity to offer a prayer at the Peacock Family Cemetery in Medford.  This private family cemetery and historic township treasure has been maintained by the Godfrey family and friends for many years and most recently got a well deserved restoration.  In a wonderful article by Peg Quann in the April 4-5 edition of the Burlington County Times, the legacy of Adonijah Peacock (killed in an explosion that occurred on January 19, 1777 while providing gunpowder for General George Washington and troops) and his descendants is recounted.  So having taken a stroll around the grounds, I penned the following prayer.

   "Lord God Almighty, we gather today in this place of rest to celebrate the renewal and re-dedication of an historic and sacred cemetery.  We thank you for all the work done by the Godfrey family and the support of the Medford / Vincentown Rotary, Fair Spring Nursery, Tom Rende and Giberson Plumbing and Excavating Company which has restored a holy plot of land where so many people of faith sleep in peace.

   The citations and epitaphs on these gravestones remind us of faithful sisters and brothers whose lives spanned just days or many decades.  These were people who were blessed to live and love in the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.  We give you thanks for their Christian witness and their contributions as citizens of this great nation.

   Creator God, on this little plot of land, we see the beauty of South Jersey; the cedars, maples, oaks, pines, briers, holly, moss, sugar sand and gurgling tributary of the Rancocas Creek.  As we walk on this sacred ground, we trust that all who have found this cemetery to be their final resting place on earth "will be satisfied when they awaken in your likeness."

   Beautiful Savior, we entrust these descendants and friends of the Peacock family to your gentle care; recalling as we walk among these markers families with whom we share a common history...the Peacocks, the Abrams, the Clines, the Godfreys, the Haines, the Hancocks, the Prickitts, the Sharps, the Taylors, the Woolmans and the Wrights.

   Holy Spirit, we pray you will continue to enliven us with your goodness and mercy as we remember and treasure all those who have gone before us.

   And so with both joy and reverence, we re-dedicate this cemetery in the name of the God who created us all in his image, who sent his only son Jesus Christ to be our Savior and who sustains us in this life by the power of the Holy Spirit...Amen"

     After the ceremony concluded, I once again walked through the cemetery.  It was then that I noticed a number of gravestones that had not only birth and death dates, but epitaphs with a special carved symbol at the top of each monument. These markers testified to the deceased's faith by employing a single hand with a pointer finger directed upward to heaven.  For those sisters and brothers buried in this sacred place and for those of us who still live by faith, our heaven-bound destination is tied directly to our confidence in the Resurrection.  Let us be reminded this Easter that one day we will all be together at the heavenly banquet hosted by the Lord Jesus who invites us all to say, whether living or asleep in Christ, "He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  Hallelujah!" 

                 Your Brother in CHRIST, Pastor David Jones